Amazon.com
October 2001
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Researching and writing A City
Possessed began with the question: "What did or didn't happen at the
Christchurch Civic Creche?' My seven-year search for answers took me far beyond
the creche case and far beyond my personal comfort zone. I found myself digging
through layer upon layer of unsuspected cover-up and unimagined scandal.
Lynley Hood's previous books are Sylvia! The Biography of Sylvia Ashton-Warner,
winner of the 1989 Wattie Book of the Year and the
PEN Best First Book of Prose; Who is Sylvia? The Diary
of a Biography; and Minnie Dean: Her Life and Crimes, a finalist in the New
Zealand Book Awards. Lynley Hood held the Robert Burns Fellowship at the
She is a parent of three adult children and grandparent of one. She holds a MSc
in Physiology, has been active in several voluntary organizations concerned
with parenting and early childhood issues, and has written many articles and
delivered numerous lectures to scientific, medical and lay audiences on various
health issues.
Book
Description
"Researching and writing this
book often felt like the literary equivalent of a solo crossing of
A City Possessed is a strong, compelling and shocking
story about one of
Ms Hood is clearly interested in the truth, and in careful research, rather
than holding a view and sticking with it through thick and thin. This is an
important book - clearly written, well-researched, assiduously referenced, and
a compelling read. Dr Alison Jones, Director of the Institute for Research on
Gender, University of Auckland
Hood says that when it comes to the Ellis case, and the manner in which those
accused of sexual abuse of children are dealt with generally, grave injustices
are and have been perpetrated. Much in this case went haywire. The result is a
book that will elicit strong responses; outrage and bewilderment among them.
Brian Turner, poet and publishing consultant
This book is a work of scholarship of the highest
academic standard. The interpretation is a very important one, and one that is
clearly supported by the evidence. Professor Mark Henaghan,
Dean of Law,
Amazon.com Reviews
Likened to a Russian Novel
by Longacre Press,
August 2002
"It has the
intensity and variety of one of those great Russian novels of the nineteenth
century..".
by Elric Cooper, Theatre Director & Arts
Commentator
A book that has been likened to a Russian novel with its vast and diverse cast
of characters and its extraordinary complex plot"
by Bookmarks, Radio New Zealand, July 2002
Amazon.com Reviews
A must-read
by A reader from New Zealand
Hood has taken on a
massive project - to not only explain the obvious flaws in the prosecution of
creche staff, but to base the entire sordid mess in the social and political
context of the time. The analysis of how sex abuse "experts" were
able to change the political and legal basis for prosecutions (while
"learning on the job"!) is a disgrace to the NZ justice system and
parliament. That disgrace is completed by the current Minister of justice
refusing to read this meticulously researched, brilliantly told, and
lion-hearted work. What are you scared of Mr Goff?
I frequently read the book into the small hours, and re-read many sections. I
recommend it as a rivetting experience. It certainly
has global significance because several overseas cases are also examined in
some detail.
Amazon.com Reviews
A masterpiece of patient and objective research
Graham J Wright
from Pleasant Point,
After reading "A City Possessed" I wrote the following to the
May 19, 2002
The Hon Phil Goff
Parliament House
I have just put down Lynley Hood's book, "A City Possessed", all 672 pages of it, and if I had any
doubts about a miscarriage of justice, then such doubts are
now completely dispelled. I cannot see how any reasonable person reading this
book could harbour doubt on the innocence of Peter Ellis.
It has been reported that you have not, indeed will not, read "A City Possessed" because you have
faith in the justice system; in the original verdict, the appeal court decisions
and the subsequent enquiry. I urge you to read the book.
Lynley Hood was able to impartially and objectively examine every facet of the
case, whereas all stages of the several judicial proceedings were narrowly
focused and circumscribed by rigid procedures that, under the amended rules of
evidence relating to children, inexorably tilted the case in favour of the
prosecution.
In her enquiries, Hood was not bound or beholden to anyone, was not subject to
professional pressures, pride or prejudice, the need to achieve a certain
result, or to jealously defend an 'expert' position. Nor was she swayed by
emotive and uneducated public opinion or the baying of a sensation seeking
media. She bases her conclusions on a comprehensive analysis of a set of persuasive
facts and on what, to any reasonable person, must be compelling and logical
inferences.
On the other hand, from the outset there is evidence of prejudice, hysteria and
contamination of evidence, coupled with a clear case of tunnel vision on the part
of police, 'experts', social workers and the interviewers - in other words,
they were so determined to believe the worst, that ultimately they could not
see the wood for the trees. Although not heard by the court, the
extra-curricular activities and utterances of constables Eade and Legat, especially to the parents on the guilt of Ellis,
were reprehensible.
Lest you may feel that I am yet another lay observer, I was formerly an
Inspector of Police (not in this country) with CID experience and frankly, I
would not have entertained a case built upon such weak, tainted, often
contradictory and demonstrably prejudiced evidence.
Please read the book, initiate a fresh enquiry if necessary, but above all,
without delay, ensure that Peter Ellis receives justice.